Floral traits and phenology drive pollinators diversity and pollinators visits in selected endemic Elaeocarpus spp. of the Western Ghats

The detailed studies on phenology, floral morphology in relation to pollination of six endemic species of Elaeocarpus were carried out at different forest areas of Southern Western Ghats, India. The pollinators were attracted by morphology and nature of flowers with different types of rewards offered by the flowers of Elaeocarpus. The number of flowers per tree has determined its type of pollinators, in which, Coleoptera and Diptera visitation was significant and positive relation with increased number of flowers per tree. However, the visitation by Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera were negatively related with flower numbers per tree. The visitation of Diptera was significant and positive relation with number of petal divisions (fringes) of flowers. Also, it has predicted that higher number of petal divisions may act as an optical advertisement to the floral visitors. Like this, the size of the flower was also one of the factors to attract the members Diptera. Also, the size of the flower was negative and significant relation with members of Hymenoptera. Moreover, the visitation of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera were also affected by the size of the flowers. The pollen production was also positive and significant relation with the visitation of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera. Therefore, it may be assumed that the primary reward for Hymenoptera and Coleoptera will be pollen grains.